The presidential candidate of the Accord Party, Isaac Babatunde Ositelu, has asked the Federal Government to declare, with immediate effect, a state of emergency in the nation’s security architecture following the spate of gruesome killings of the civilian population and military personnel by the insurgent groups rampaging in sections of the country.
According to Ositelu, it was a tragedy of immense proportion that each time the military claims to have technically defeated the insurgents, the group usually responded with bigger damage on the people and the military.
In a statement released to the media in Lagos on Tuesday, he said the life of every Nigerian must not be cut short with reckless abandon while the nation’s leaders and its people carry on as if it is business as usual.
“It is unacceptable the way our people are being killed on a regular basis. No nation should stand aloof and watch with trepidation the deliberate and consistent carnage in our land,” he said.
Ositelu admonished that the war on insurgency cannot be fought and won in the media space.
According to him, it is demeaning to the image of the country how military bases are cheaply overrun by the Boko Haram fighters, promising to make military institutions fortresses that are impenetrable to armed gangs if elected president.
While condoling with the Federal Government, Nigerian military authorities and the families of the fallen heroes, Ositelu said the Metele massacre in Borno State is one too many.
He therefore said with the intractable killings of the military operatives and the Nigerian people, particularly in the northern states, his government would probe all defence and security budgets and expenditure from 1999 to 2018.
He noted that if the capital votes and releases to the military had been efficiently executed in the last 19 years, there was no way the Nigerian military would continue to come under violent butchery by the marauders and insurgent groups.
He said since the beginning of this year, no fewer than 160 officers and soldiers have been killed by the militant groups.
The Accord party presidential candidate said clear cut performance metrics would be used in defining the tenure of his security chiefs once the mantle of leadership is handed over to him.
Ositelu stressed that military commanders who failed to meet up to their deliverables would be asked to give way to a more robust leadership that is result oriented.
While assuring that competency, commitment, dedication and loyalty to the country would be rewarded, he said the various agencies, including the armed forces, Police, Department of State Services, the Military Intelligence Agency and Defence Intelligence Agency would be encouraged to have seamless collaborations in the interest of the nation.
He said the unmitigated rivalry among the security services would be a thing of the past during his tenure.
Ositelu said the Nigerian military, which had won international accolades across Africa and other parts of the globe, had no business being decimated by a rat tag insurgent militants.
According to him, if insinuations that the welfare of the military operatives had ebbed deeply and that most of the military equipment for fighting the insurgents were obsolete aside from being ill equipped, there is no better time than during his tenure to fumigate the budgetary provisions and expenditures from 1999 till date.
He said there will be a paradigm shift in the manner of tackling the insurgents if the Nigerian people voted him into power at the 2019 presidential election.
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